276 
, SWALLOW- TAILED FLYCATCHER. 
bird in Muscicapa, whereas, from an inspection of the bills, it 
will at once be seen, that the latter would be still more pro- 
perly placed in their genus Tyrannus^ as the form of its bill 
is exactly the same with that of the kingbird, the type of the 
sub-genus. 
The swallow-tailed flycatcher, when in full plumage, is 
eleven inches long. The bill and feet are blackish ; the irides 
are brown (red, according to authors). The upper part of the 
head and neck is of a light grey ; the back and scapulars are 
dark cinereous, tinged with reddish brown ; the rump is of the 
same colour, but strongly tinged with black, and the superior 
tail-coverts are deep black ; the under part of the body is milk 
white, the flanks being tinged with red ; the inferior tail-co- 
verts are pale rosaceous ; the wings are brownish black, the 
upper coverts and secondaries being margined externally, and 
at tip with dull whitish ; the under wing-coverts are whitish 
rosaceous ; the axillary feathers, above and beneath, are of a 
vivid scarlet colour. The tail is greatly elongated and exces- 
sively forked ; it is of a deep velvet black colour, each feather 
having the terminal margin of a dull whitish tint, and the 
shafts white at their bases. The three exterior feathers on 
each side are of a delicate pale rosaceous colour on a consider- 
able part of their length from the base. The external one is 
five inches and a half long ; the second and third gradually 
decrease in length, but the fourth is disproportionately shorter, 
and from this feather there is again a gradual decrease to 
the sixth, which is little more than two inches long. 
The female of the swallow-tailed flycatcher is probably very 
similar to the male, but the colours of the young bird are much 
less vivid, and the exterior tail-feathers are much shorter than 
those of the adult. 
The swallow-tailed flycatcher is as audacious as the king- 
bird, attacking with unhesitating intrepidity, and turning the 
flight of the most powerful of the feathered tribe. Its note 
consists of a chirping, sounding like tsch^ tscli^ much resem- 
bling that of the prairie dog \Arctomys ludoviciana^ Ord), by 
